Tobacco Consumption among Slum Women of Dhaka City: Causes, Consequences and Remedies

Abstract

Tobacco consumption is not only harmful for health of women; it has huge socio-economic costs too. The main thrust of the study is to assess the effects of tobacco consumption by slum women. From this study it is found that the slum women generally take smokeless chewing tobacco like zarda and none of the respondents smoke cigarette. About 5% of them consume bidi. The factors which influence slum women to consume tobacco are age, income, education, number of smoking family members, consciousness about health, number of children and employment status. In this study, no significant relationship is found between spending on tobacco and illness of the respondents. Most of the respondents are free from any type of diseases like asthma, pneumonia, TB, bone diseases etc. caused by tobacco consumption. Awareness about the health risks and hazards due to smokeless chewing tobacco consumption should be created as they don’t consider smokeless chewing tobacco harmful. Government, NGOs and community-based organizations can play a vital role to reduce tobacco consumption among slum women.